Talk:Philip J. Fry

Philip J. Fry appeared on the Infosphere's Main Page as the featured article for September, 2006. This article (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best produced by the Infosphere community. If you can update or improve it, please do.

Contents

Buddy13 I got his birthdate off of Wikipedia. And several other people list his birthdate as being in 1974. Is there any evidence to support this? In the original script, he states that he was conceived during Nixon's resignation speech, which occured on August 9, 1974, which would place his birth nine months later, sometime in May, 1975. I know the original script isn't really official, but if no contradicting evidence made it into any episodes, I think we can take it as such.

Wikipedia listed his birthdate as August 9 1975, but there's no justification given so I just reverted it. There's a general discussion about his age on wikipedia which is pretty funny.

One possible way of finding an exact date is that in Luck of the Fryrish, opening scene, the announcer says: "And Grote leans into the pitch. It hits him! The Mets win!" Jerry Grote was in the Mets from 66 to 77. So it's possible there's an actual game where Jerry Grote took a ball for the win in the last inning. That would be a nice gift from the writers. Sbwoodside 04:30, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid I know too little about baseball, but maybe this page can help? Alternatively, have a look around here, but I am not sure how to read the page. --SvipTalk 07:02, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

There is no game where grote wins by leaning into the pitch and getting hit. i know its a shame it would be nice to figure out when his birthday was but, then again its one of life's greatest mysteries. -- the preceding unsigned comment was written by 76.21.104.115.

I have no idea how that happened, but thanks for fixing it. I accidentally rolled back a change, then in an attempt to fix it, I looked at the history, copied the entire page, then hit Page and Edit (whereas, I actually should've edited the Discussion) and pasted it all back in. I feel silly. --Buddy 23:47, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

I was thinking this out one day and I realized that Enos is His mother's father. The reason bing is that in one episode, Fry's father, Yancy, said that every first born Fry names his first born son Yancy. Just a thought.
--Fallettus 10:57, 22 February 2007 (PST)Someguy564

This has been discussed many times in many places, including here. Yancy says "my grandfather and his father and so on"--he never mentions his father. Enos is his father. Fry's mother's hair looks like Enos', though, so it may be revealed in later episodes that Fry went further back in time and created the Fry line in the first place. Or something. See Fry Family Tree and its talk page. --Buddy 12:52, 22 February 2007 (PST)

But why is it he his father's father? What makes us so sure of that?--Fallettus 12:32, 26 February 2007 (PST)

Well, technically, the only proof is the sketch of Enos Fry. As per the discussion here, we know Enos is a Fry also our Fry speaks to his Dad in Enos' crotch. We therefore assume the slightly less disgusting. Enos is the falsified father of Yancy.Wait why did I say "slightly less disgusting"? If Minute Man is ancestral to Our Fry's mother and he confused his grandparents (in fact fathering his mother) and Enos is a Fry, then at some point Fry's parents either were or believed they were cousins. Actually, the cousin idea may explain the hair similarity. - Quolnok 02:59, 27 February 2007 (PST)

I fail to see any evidence of a connection to Fry's mother in any of Fry's paternal gene pool. Though she does have similar hair we seem to forget that she is also a cartoon - why not discuss the likely hood of the animator giving her the hair style to show family resemblance? Quolnok - how does Fry talking to Enos' crutch amount to any evidence that Enos took part in conception? Robot Elder

It's all very simple. Enos' father's (most likely) name was Yancy Fry. Enos was in love with Mildred. Fry goes back in time and kills Enos and becomes his own grandpa. Since Fry's soon disappearance through time again, it is most likely that Mildred made up the story about Enos (who as we can see was a real person) was Yancy, Sr.'s father (we know it must be Yancy's father and not Fry's mother's father, since Fry "knows" that Enos is his father's father (as he mentions his dad when he talks to Enos' crotch)). Additional, it would not make sense for "Minute Man" Fry to be Fry's mother's ancestral, because he is mentioned by Yancy clearly to indicate his line. The similarity between Yancy and Fry's mother may be purely for the sake of making them look like a family from an artistic view. Often people look for people who look like them. --SvipTalk 18:59, 3 April 2008 (PDT)

Thank you, that's what I've been saying all along(note that I've previously said this on an edit remark on the Phillip J Fry II page in particular). It's not hard to grasp such a concept.Anarchy Balsac 19:23, 3 April 2008 (PDT)

In the episode "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", everyone (including Fry) goes in the Fountain of Aging. The Professer says that he is even older than before. So is it not possible, nay, probable that everyone is a slightly different age than before? How likely is it that when each person jumped into the fountain, they all come out the same age as before? Not very likely, I assume. So can we really be sure of anyone's real age? - Ziekerz

We know that, unlike other cartoons, the characters age as years progress. The best we can do is take known ages and add one after the year of the episode ends. Although we probably should add a bit to all characters with known ages pages noting the source for the information. You are right though, we don't know how much the fountain aged them. - Quolnok 19:09, 10 August 2007 (PDT)

Maybe, Ziekerz. But how is likely is most of the things on the show? This is not a serious TV show. Well... not much TV is serious. But you know what I mean. You better accept that the writers on this show has a range of ... freedom. And besides, their time in the fountain wouldn't have changed their technically age. --SvipTalk 20:38, 10 August 2007 (PDT)

You do have a point Svip, however keep in mind that while the Futurama staff doesn't do this perfectly, they do conform to continuity and the laws of science more than almost all other TV shows and movies.Anarchy Balsac 09:06, 1 February 2008 (PST)

Uh, guys, another thing is his non-biological age (I forgot the word for it.) Not only was he frozen twice making him over 2000 year old, but he then went to the heat death at the end of the universe only to see the big bang of the next universe, which he went the full length of until it's heat death/big bang, to where he started, in The Late Philip J. Fry. This makes his age added to the full length of the universe... twice. So, he is over 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,002,000 years old. Also, there are many copies of him, some were deceased before others. Plus, to the biological dilemma, he was reborn, resetting his biological age to zero. Columbus8myhw

Well, no. Fry was inside the time machine and thus was not aged. The universe around the time machine aged, not the time machine in itself. Aki 11:49, 22 December 2010 (CET)

I'm with Aki on this one. Why would you use a time machine if you aged normally? You could easily die during transit. And I don't think we should count his biological clock as reset because this Fry isn't a clone. Some of the original cells were used as a basis for the rebirth. Teyrn of Highever 13:08, 22 December 2010 (CET)

I already have a time machine where you age normally. It call it my 'lavatory'. --Sviptalk 13:57, 22 December 2010 (CET)

By non-biological age, you mean chronological age, right? Because I think we should just have his biological age in the infobox, and then explain all that chronological, time travel stuff in the Age section. San Saber 15:33, 22 December 2010 (CET)

Like wikipedia with the long character articles we could split them up into different sections like for Fry, Early Life, Discovering the Future (mainly season one), and others about seasons 2,3,4 and when it comes out the movies. Also we could include other sections like on his romantic interests - Humorbot 0.4 08:51, 13 September 2007 (PDT)

And wouldn't you know it thanks to fate I already deleted that section, thanks for the info Svip - Humorbot 0.4 14:33, 25 November 2007 (PST)

Humorbot, that reminds me of an important thing. Just because something is mentioned in the infobox, does it not mean it cannot be mentioned again in the article. The infobox is intended for a quick overlook. And tabular data. --SvipTalk 11:05, 29 November 2007 (PST)

Speaking of family, I was just thinking of something. I'm still new to the series, but I just realized there was no mention of him having a dog in the pilot. It looks like his background hasn't really been developed, until sometime in season three. Like, for instance, it looks like Yancy was mostly invented for "Luck of the Fryrish" - even though, in order to be a great-great... grandnephew to Farnsworth, he'd have to have a sibling. In the pilot, he seemed pretty happy to not have to deal with his family anymore - then, in Xmas Story, he felt bad about how much he misses his family. So, it kind of looks to me like not much thought was put into his background - until a couple years later. What are your thoughts?
Mcfry00 06:41, 19 May 2008 (PDT)

It's not that it wasn't planned out, it's just that it was left open for further filling-in. The dog is never mentioned in the pilot, and this is explained in the commentary for the Jurassic Bark ep. And the brother is also never mentioned, but how often to grown people mention or talk to their brothers? Especially since we only see him for a few hours in 1999. And it's perfectly normal to be completely sick of your family and respond with a "Yahoo!" when you realize you never have to deal with them again (I'm pretty close to that point right now, myself), but eventually, you will begin to miss them. It's sort of a "You don't know what you have till it's gone" sort of thing. --Buddy 13:33, 21 May 2008 (PDT)

When did that happen? The only second freezing I remember was when he was in pauly shore's tube, but he was only frozen for three days, not a thousand years. I'm so confused? Did it happen in a comic? What the dilly, yo?! --Buddy 10:58, 29 November 2007 (PST)

Did you not watch the film? He travels back in time to 2000, where after touching his own butt (on his frozen self) he falls into the tube and stays there for a 1000 years, when he wakes up, he tunes it for 7.95 years so he can wake up when the guys are remembering him in Central Park. --SvipTalk 11:03, 29 November 2007 (PST)

I thought you said you had watched it... *scratches head* --SvipTalk 11:06, 29 November 2007 (PST)

I accidentally stumbled on an online version, and I watched the cold opening, but after the theme song (and a bit of doctor bimbo or whatever Fry called her) I stopped. The movie will be in my mailbox today, and I shall watch it on the glorious real screen of a television, as it was meant to be! (even if it were legal, I can't stand watching things on tiny computer screens, and at poor internet-friendly resolutions). But within a day or two, I'll have watched the whole thing, including any and all commentaries, special features, deleted scenes, and robot porn. --Buddy 11:09, 29 November 2007 (PST)

Amazon shipped mine Tuesday, but they say ETA is 17 December. >:O How difficult is it t send something across the Atlantic I ask!? Also, I am sorry for revealing such information then! I shall speak no more until you have it. I too want to get my hand on the extra material! ;-; --SvipTalk 11:14, 29 November 2007 (PST)

Should we include a sub-article (similar to the episodes' commentary sub-articles) for related merchendise? Obviously, action figures, shirts, that sort of thing. Or should we consolidate all such things into a single mega-article? I ask because I don't see anything anywhere about action figures, and it might be interesting to note the different types and companies and accessories... --Buddy 18:23, 3 February 2008 (PST)

Well, we definitely need something somewhere. I think a subsection of the "Additional Info" that links to the pages for the groups of action figures/etc (based on style/company) would be best. Unless the members of the groups are to be on separate pages and in group categories, then just a link to that article. - Quolnok 18:31, 3 February 2008 (PST)

It seems like most of the rest of the cast has something they're known to say a lot. What about Fry, though? I can't think of anything, off-hand.
Mcfry00 05:07, 19 May 2008 (PDT)

Bender is probably the character that has most catch phrases. Farnsworth has the most memorable. Hermes, Zoidberg and Amy all have theirs. You can argue that Leela's "Hi-yah!" is her catch phrase, as she seem later on to use even when pulling out plugs. Fry, on the other hand, doesn't. And it's not that it really matters in the end. Cause his most likely catchphrase is just saying stupid things. Such as "I'll be whatever I wanna do." But not a common phrase spoken over and over again. To be honest, it doesn't fit his character. --SvipTalk 06:05, 19 May 2008 (PDT)

I did a Google search on this, and it looks like the question had been asked before. "What's up?" has been suggested - which, I think, is more borderline. He's probably the only character in the series to say that, but it still might be a stretch. Howqever, "swish" and "burn" were also mentioned as possible ones.

I was reading about the Pony Express today as a result of an argument with a friend over how long it would have taken me to get to his house in the Old West via horse (a roundabout way of me telling him he lives too far away). In my reading I ran across Johnny Fry, the "First official Pony Express rider." It just seemed an interesting coincidence that the perpetual delivery boy through the millennia, Philip J. Fry, shares his family surname and an initial with one of the earliest "Express" delivery boys. Has that connection ever been brought up before, and is it just cool coincidence or was it intentional?

Interesting thought. I don't think there is a connection (especially the J is something Groening uses for all his series, so I doubt there's a connection to Johnny), but it should be noted in the trivia section or something. Aki 13:00, 5 December 2010 (CET)

I actually think I did read this somewhere, possibly Wikipedia. It might be mentioned here that he "shares a surname" with another famous Fry. Or something. I don't think we can infer that the name was influenced by Johnny Fry, though. --Buddy 03:43, 6 December 2010 (CET)

I remember there was some episode where Fry offhandedly demonstrated the ability to count really fast. The cast was sitting around the table at Planet Rxpress and someone emptied onto the table 17 roaches (I think it was roaches), at which point Fry exclaimed "Seventeen roaches?!", even though he had very little time to count. I had to freeze the video to count them.

Does anyone know what episode that was and what is the meaning of it? It seems like something autistic sevants are known for - Seeing a set of objects and just 'knowing' how many of them there are. -- the preceding unsigned comment was written by 37.142.179.84.